Health-conscious buyers and the possible consequences on fast food companies

Health-conscious buyers and the possible consequences on fast food companies

This study was intended to investigate the advent of the health-conscious buyers and the possible consequences on fast food companies, with particular emphasis on McDonald’s. According to Hoque, Alam and Nahid (2018), health consciousness can be defined as the degree to which an individual is prepared to carry out health actions. Health consciousness has been theorized as consisting of four dimensions, which include: health self-consciousness, health alertness, health self-monitoring, and health involvement (Mesanovic, Kadic-Maglajlic, and Cicic, 2013).

The health belief model, which has been central in explaining individuals’ health-related behaviour, asserts that an individual’s likelihood to adopt a given health-related behaviour is a function of his/her convictions regarding the threat of a given illness/disease and his/her conviction regarding how effective a suggested health behaviour or act can help avert the illness/disease (Luquis and Kensinger, 2019). This model has behavioural and psychological underpinnings and is based on two pillars of health behaviour (i.e. the need to avoid illness or recover from illness if sick, and the conviction that a given particular health action will help avoid or heal the illness). In that regards, the individual’s behaviour is determined by his/her perceptions of the benefits and barriers to health behaviour (Jones et al., 2015).

Taking this in mind, many developed countries have recently experienced a surge in lifestyle diseases. Examples of these diseases include obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain types of cancers. Fast foods have been implicated as being behind the rise in many of these diseases. This is because fast foods are dense in energy, have higher trans-fat content, high saturated fats, salt, and are served in large portions (Azadbakht and Esmaillzadeh, 2018).

With consumers associating a direct link between their diet choices and health outcomes, consumer health consciousness has been on the rise. This has manifested itself via a shift in favour of diets that include plant-based, natural, and preservative-free diets, enriched food items (e.g. those enriched with fibre and omega fatty acids), low-fat, low-sugar, and low-salt food, and food items free of salt, sugar, and supplements, organic food items, and functional food (Szakaly et al., 2012; Hosni, Periklis and Baourakis, 2017). From the perspective of the health belief model, there is, therefore, a growing conviction that shifting away from fast foods to the various healthier food alternatives can help to avoid the various lifestyle diseases which have been in the rise.

1.2 Research Problem

Fast food provides a high degree of convenience for the time-pressed, post-industrial consumer.

However, fast food consumption has been associated with many lifestyle and chronic diseases, leading to pressure for fast food companies to introduce healthier menus (Azadbakht and Esmaillzadeh, 2018). Notwithstanding this, the influence of consumer attitudes towards fast food and the optimal response for fast food firms remain unaddressed by empirical research(Thompson et al., 2018; Jin, Line, and Lee, 2017).

1.3 The Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to investigate the advent of the health-conscious buyers and the possible consequences on fast food companies, with particular emphasis on McDonald’s. Key research questions adopted for the study include:

1. What are the emerging attitudes which consumers have regarding health?
2. What influence do the emerging consumer attitudes towards health have on fast food companies?
3. How can fast food companies react to the changes brought about emerging consumer attitudes towards health

To answer the above research questions, a set of specific objectives of the research have been formulated, and these include:

1. To investigate the emerging consumer attitude trends regarding health
2. To assess the influence of such trends on fast food companies
3. To offer recommendations for reacting to the changes brought about by such trends

1.4 The Rationale of the Study

This research subject warrants further investigation due to various reasons. Fast foods have been implicated as the primary cause of many lifestyle diseases, leading to rising pressure for healthier menus from consumers. Even though fast food companies have responded to this pressure, academic research has lagged behind, and fast food companies are left to make important managerial decisions on the basis of circumstantial and conventional assumptions, rather than on the basis of empirical evidence (Thompson et al., 2018; Jin, Line, and Lee, 2017).

Whereas existing studies identify specific demographic groups which manifest high health consciousness and fondness for healthier menus; they have overlooked the behavioural consequences of the growing health consciousness trends among fast-food consumers (Sapp, 2003; Lappo et al., 2013; Jin, Line, and Lee, 2017). In this regard, significant knowledge and research gaps exist with regards to the advent of the health-conscious buyers and the possible consequences on fast food companies.

Having previously worked in an entry-level position at a McDonald’s fast-food outlet, I have witnessed McDonald’s’ competitors achieve popularity at the expense of the firm through the introduction of fast causal menus. Even though McDonald’s eventually introduced healthier menu choices, it continues to face various challenges, including difficulty shaking off its junk-food reputation and operational complexities that significantly impact its ability to offer healthy menus. This has aroused my interest in studying how fast food companies (and particularly McDonald’s) can react to the changes brought about emerging consumer attitudes towards health.

1.5 Research Significance

Investigation of the possible consequences of rising health-consciousness on fast food companies warrants research attention for theoretical and practical reasons. Firstly, the research will provide empirical evidence, which can form the basis for the management decisions of fast-food firms, potentially contributing to more robust, evidence-led decisions.

This will enable fast food companies (and particularly McDonald’s) to achieve a more optimal fit between its internal resources and external environment, which is a critical ingredient required for gaining lasting competitive advantage. Secondly, the study is likely to generate additional knowledge on the behavioural repercussions of the health consciousness trend, not only benefitting researchers and the academia through the filling of research and knowledge gaps but also further informing the fast food companies’ strategies.

1.6 The Scope of the Study

Even though the research interest is on the fast-food industry, specific focus will be on the fast-food segment of the industry, and specifically on McDonald’s. McDonald’s has fast food outlets across the world, but specific geographical interest will be on Hong Kong, and more specifically, on its Quarry Bay operations.

McDonald’s’ 235 outlets in Hong Kong have 15,000 employees. The research will utilize a sample size of only seven middle-level managers (based at the firm’s corporate office in Quarry Bay) who will be selected purposively, based on the fact that they are likely to be highly conversant with both consumer trends and the firm’s strategic response (McDonald’s Hong Kong, 2020).

The research data will be obtained via semi-structured interviews, which will be administered over a one-week period in July 2020. Specific issues to be investigated can be broken down into sub-questions, and include: how conscious McDonald’s consumers are regarding their health, the degree of McDonald’s’ health alertness, the extent of McDonald’s’ consumers’ health monitoring, the degree of McDonald’s consumers’ health involvement, beliefs about the health threats posed by consuming fast foods, their beliefs about the effectiveness of healthier menus in avoiding lifestyle diseases, the barriers preventing McDonald’s’ consumers from shifting to healthier menus, and how McDonald’s can respond to the customers’ health consciousness.

1.7 Definition of Terms

1 Health consciousness: the degree to which an individual is prepared to carry out health actions.

2 Attitude: the way an individual thinks or feels about a given person, situation, idea, or object. This is seen as comprising of the emotional, behavioural, and cognitive elements.

3 Fast food: any food that is quickly mass-produced through standardized methods, and which can be quickly dispensed at cost-friendly outlets as take-away or for eating there. Usually, less attention is paid on nutritional value, and the focus is on the speed of service and low prices.

4 McDonald’s: the world’s leading fast-food chain. Based in Illinois, it was started in 1948 and offers fast food menu items such as fried chicken, hamburgers, and fries.

Define the terms used in the study that are not usually encountered by readers, generally. If the study focuses on only one institution or company, then a short background history of it should be included in this chapter.

1.8 Summary

This chapter has presented the introductory section of the research on the advent of health-conscious buyers and the possible consequences on fast food companies. Following a brief description of the research background, the research problem, purpose, rationale, significance, and scope, have been highlighted, paving the way for a review of the relevant literature pertaining to the research objectives in the chapter that follows